Hometown Tales Podcast

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Fountains of Wayne

(Photo - Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive)

A lot of people have been writing in regarding an iconic store in Wayne, NJ that just recently closed. "Fountains of Wayne" has been a staple along Route 46 for decades. First we lost "Anthony's Steaks" years ago and now "Fountains of Wayne" is gone. And yes that is what the band "Fountains of Wayne" is named after.

Here an email forwarded from Diane Carlin who was alerted via a email group she is part of regarding Christmas Decorations.

Sad to see such an iconic establishment be another victim to tough economic times."Unfortunately, I open this edition of Chip’s Tips with some sad news: it is with deep regret that I report to you that yet another one of the great Christmas stores in the New York metropolitan area has closed its doors forever. As a result of the current economic downturn, Fountains of Wayne, a New Jersey landmark for over 40 years on Route 46 in Wayne, has gone out of business. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Fortunoff, which boasted quite an elaborate Christmas department during the holiday season, has been forced to close as well. These stores now join the already defunct Christmas City, Harrows and Treasure Island. But that’s not all; in addition to all this, beginning this year the Branch Brook/Namco chain will no longer be carrying a Christmas line. They now join Fairfield Garden Center, which, while remaining in business, has also discontinued its Christmas line. What a perfectly awful loss for our area in only the last 5 years, and this very same thing is happening in other areas all across the nation. It’s just a very sad sign of the times. One small bright spot to report, however, is that subsequent to its liquidation, the Harrows name has been resurrected by 2 former partners and has opened 3 stores on Long Island. However, these new Harrows stores are not the same as the original stores. For example, while they do have a Christmas department during the holidays, these new stores no longer market the Golden Sleigh product line, which was the original store’s exclusive line of Christmas goods."